Julien McBain
Julien McBain is the Captain and Brewer of the Brewery Ship Audacious. Early Life Born in Strathspey, Scotland in 2690 to a brewer and weaver, McBain moved to the United States in 2697 when his family fled the impending war between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain. His family stayed in Vermont for several years before moving to Montana in 2707. The War of Two Kings When Queen Anne III passed away in 2711, she her twin sons were left to determine the rightful heir to the crown of the UK. With the Duke of Edinborough, head of House Windsor, declared the rightful heir by the House of Lords and the Duke of York declared so by the House of Commons, war broke out between the two siblings. McBain, who had never lost his identity as a Scot, travelled back to his homeland to volunteer to fight for Duke William, the Duke of Edinborough. He would fight for two years, first as an officer on the HMAS Iverness and later as a commando attached to SAS (although to this day he denies being an actual member of the SAS or SBS). He would suffer two wounds in the Battle of Northumbridge in 2712, including one that penetrated a lung. He survived because the medic on his team managed to use a piece of hose to keep blood out of his chest wound until they could airlift him out. He would be in a hospital for the next six months in Iverness. After recovering, he was awarded with a place in the Royal Scots Dragoons, Temporal Regiment. The war ended in 2713 with the Battle of London, when the HMAS Cornwall went down with all hands, including the Duke of York. The ship was downed by a commando team that Julien was on, although the details of the mission are still classifed. Within days, the Duke of Edinborough was crowned King and McBain returned to the United States, settling in Bismarck, North Dakota. The Dissolution of the United States When the US fell apart in 2715, Julien fought as a mercenary in the civil wars that followed. He would lead several commando attacks on the Midwest Alliance and the Empire of New York and New Jersey on behalf of the Northern Plains Confederation, and the Second Vermont Republic, respectively. He officially threw in with the NPC as a regular when the Midwest Alliance bombed Bismarck, ND with a tactical nuclear device, which killed fifty thousand and irradiated much of the city centre. Commendeering a Galliant-class Frigate in what is still held to be an act of piracy by the Midwest Alliance and renaming it the Audacious, he raided and harrassed MWA shipping until the end of the war in 2719. After the war was over, he converted the Audacious into a brewery ship and continued his family's business of mead making. Syfer Locke and The Red Fork Empire In 2721, while travelling through another world selling his wares, McBain would meet Captain Syfer Locke in a chance meeting with the IAS Banish Misfortune. After a sword duel to prevent damage to their ships that left them both badly injured, they managed to forge a friendship and Locke told McBain of the Red Fork Empire. Locked away from his home reality by a temporal storm, McBain applied for citizenship and was accepted by The Emperor. McBain is known to be a strong advocate of the Red, even when his views contradict those of one of the Five Emperors. Although he freely associates with all people in the Empire, and is a known associate of not only Syfer Locke, but Margaret Pye, it is unknown whether or not he is part of the Heresy of the Sixth Emperor.